Chasing The Light
by insiqnificant
Summary: "Being a teenager isn't what you think it is," Emma sighed, looking over at Clementine, "but I know that once all this is over, you'll be able to make it there. Life is shit sometimes, but it's the people that tough it out through the bad stuff that can really give you hope that everything's gonna be okay..." "Like...your mom and Lee?" Clementine asked. "Yeah. Exactly." Lee/OC
1. Chapter 1: Stupid People

**CHASING THE LIGHT—EPISODE 1½**

**Chapter 1: Stupid People**

**(This story is rated *T* for language, violence, and some gore...)**

* * *

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with The Walking Dead. All right go to Telltale Games and, please, I don't even get paid for this stuff. It's purely for my own enjoyment, but if anyone else likes it, it makes it that much better._

* * *

"Emma!"

The feet that had been carrying her down the dirt path suddenly stopped in their tracks as her mom frantically called out her name. She whipped her head around and cried out at Melissa's figure slumped over on her knees, hand covering the bullet wound in her bleeding shoulder.

"What happened!?" Emma shrieked frantically, anxiously worried about her mother's condition, and ran to her side.

"It's okay, baby." She flashed her daughter a comforting smile, trying to ignore the amount of blood streaming through her fingertips, "I was just shot. Not a big deal..."

"Being shot IS a big deal, Mom!" Her mother's false calmness angered her more than anything else, "You. Could. Die."

"GET BACK HERE! WE'LL KILL YOU!" Their assailants' footsteps were heard pounding down the dirt trail, along with a few mocking catcalls, "We're gonna eat good tonight, guys."

"Baby doll, we can't let them take our food," Melissa hissed frantically, placing a free hand on Emma's shoulder, "They already stole everything from our campsite—"

"—but this bag," Emma finished, motioning to the messenger bag slung over her shoulder.

The hammering footsteps stampeded closer to the duo, waiting for the thrill of bloodshed. A housewife, two teenagers, a police officer, and a banker were just a few of the people that had gone mad with deseperation—and were also the people following Emma and her mother.

Emma glanced behind her as she lifted her mother up. Carried her over to some nearby shrubbery to use for camouflage until the horde passed. The illumination from their flashlights coated the ground in sunlight-like beams, warning Emma of their nearby presence. With the sleeve of her jacket, she wiped away the drops of nervous sweat on her brow and helped her mother wiggle in between the large shrubs. But there was a problem...

"There's not enough room for me to fit in here. I'll have to find something else," Emma whispered, crawling away into the tall, dewey grass. Drops of water wet her hair and clothes.

Scuffs against the dirt. Angry voices. Violent stomps. They were there. Emma silently pleaded to whoever it was up in the sky to make these people go away. She crawled behind the thick trunk of a tree and waited. And waited. But they just wouldn't leave. She could hear them whispering back and forth to each other, the footsteps. Then the grass rustled and she knew they were searching the woods—her _mom_! The girl clutched onto her messenger bag. Grabbed the gun her dad had given her from the waist of her jeans.

Her father was a gun enthusiast, always collecting and shooting them, so naturally she was forced to learn (about a year ago) how to properly hold and shoot a gun. But damn, did it come in handy. She still wasn't accurate with her shots, albeit it didn't matter in this new world—a gun was key to survival, whether you were an expert or not. You could pretty much throw it and kill someone.

"Jimmy, I can't find them," she heard one of the women shout, her voice laced with a thick southern drawl.

At that point, she was more concerned for her mother than she was herself. A second passed. Silence. Then the piercing scream of Melissa disturbed the quietness in the air. Emma lept up and raced to where her mother was, gasping at the sight.

Melissa was being held against an overweight woman, a gun pressed into her cheek. Her arms were being held behind her back, stretching her injury and making more blood seep from the wound.

"Sweetie, stay away. I'm okay," the mother said in a low, soothing voice, though the pain on her face suggested otherwise.

"Shut the fuck up, lady! I tell you people what to do from now on, got it?" the overweight woman hissed, pressing the barrel of the gun farther into Melissa's cheek, "Now, little girl, throw the gun over here."

Emma smiled as awkwardly as possible. She took the gun, aimed, and threw it at the woman's head, praying it would it its target. The metal rammed in to her nose, making her stumble backwards with a strangled cry, effectively releasing her hold on Melissa. Blood sprayed on the mother's white shirt.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't want you to kill my mom," the girl apologized, helping her mother over to a tree to sit against.

Emma tip-toed over to where the woman sat growling at her, nose crooked and bleeding. She still hadn't fully recovered from the hit, revealed by how she bobbed around to keep from falling on her face. Emma reached for her father's gun and snatched it out from the overweight woman's feet.

"Emma, hurry and get over here. We need to get out of this place before they catch us again," Melissa informed her daughter, "And I don't ever want to see you doing anything dangerous like that, you hear me?" Emma nodded as her mom brushed back her bangs in a comforting manner.

The mother and daughter—along with their bag full of food—weaved through the trees and grass and colorful plants and took in the smell of fresh air and the darkening sky as they tried to escape the people chasing them.

* * *

Emma and Melissa—after over thirty minutes of walking—stumbled out of the woods and came across... a motel? The sign read 'Motor Inn'. After examining the place, Melissa looked over at her daughter and grinned like a child who had just received a brand new toy.

"We did it, Em. We actually might make it." She kissed Emma's hair, refusing to remove her hand from her aching shoulder.

"Mom, how are we going to make this place, ya know, _safe_?" Emma huffed, brushing her bangs out of her face.

"Well, we can line up a few cars, pile on some random objects that find, create a barrier that'll at least slow both living and dead down. And maybe we'll find one that's in good enough shape to take us to South Georgia."

"Yeah, well, we'll need a lot more stuff than a car before we can get to Grandma and Grandpa's. But let's wrap up that shoulder first, okay?"

"It shouldn't be your job, but it's obvious that I'm in no position to do anything." Melissa smiled, "So just this once."

Nevertheless, the mother was extremely worried about her daughter's safety, so she helped Emma with the creation of a small barrier that consisted of cars, a few large trashbins, and other random boxes and things both lying around and in the rooms. Then they started work on the older woman's shoulder.

On their long journey through towns and cities and random shelters other people had built, they had made a small assortment of "survival stuff", as Emma called it. They stored it in a plaid tote bag that, as of then, Emma was carrying. Band-aids, a flashlight, batteries, gauze (the single and rollable kind), ointment, bottles of water, and rubbing alcohol were just some of the things inside.

After Emma cleaned off all of the blood, disinfected it, and dressed it, she opened the messenger bag and pulled out two snack bars. She gave one to her mother and kept the other.

"So, what are we gonna do, Mom? If our plan is to get to South Georgia where it's the best bet for safety, how are we gonna find the stuff we need?" Emma urged, twisting her face in to one of pure worry.

"Well, we need a running car, a lot of food and water, supplies, and weapons."

"Okay," Emma nodded, "All we have to do is find out where to get all that stuff."

"There's an RV out there that we could travel in and find what we need."

"South Georgia to my grandparents' house. We have a sturdy plan, Mom. You're the greatest." Emma bit in to her snack bar.

"Well, I couldn't have asked for a better daughter," Melissa announced proudly, finishing off the remaining bite of her food, "I just hope you keep this up when I'm too old to do it myself."

Emma hummed. "Yeah, I will, Mom. If we ever live that long..."

"Have faith, baby doll! Who knows? We could wake up tomorrow and this'll all be over." Melissa waved a hand around the room.

"I admire your enthusiasm, but I just can't get my hopes up." The girl sighed and lowered her head in defeat, "I mean, what if this never ends?"

"Just have faith, little one," her mother copied her dad's words, jeering at how he would say it like he was Darth Vader.

Emma was stunned silent; she never thought her mother would be able to do anything that had to do with him just yet. He had only died a few days ago. She looked up at Melissa, noticed her blue eyes filled with a heartache only a wife would understand, and started laughing as hard as she could. Melissa followed quickly after hearing her little girl's laugh. The air around them instantly felt warm and comforting.

And then Melissa heard it.

The garbage bins were being moved. Someone was getting in. Emma!

"Emma, get behind the bed and don't move until I say, got it?" Melissa hissed, lowering herself into a crouch postition.

"But, why? What's going on? Is someone getting in?" Emma asked, her voice raised over its usual pitch.

"I think so, baby doll." Melissa reached for the gun inside the tote bag, gathering a clip of ammunition.

"Stop calling me that. I'm fifteen."

"Now's not the time for this." She loaded the firearm and stared at Emma.

Emma sighed and raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, fine! We'll do it later!"

Melissa motioned the girl over to the window and mouthed, "Look out there..."

She obeyed, pushing the burgundy curtains aside just enough to see out. There were a large group of people, even...children.

"Mom, there are kids out there!" Emma whispered as she looked back, "And..." She surveyed the scene, "Two kids—boy and a girl, a man with a hilarious handlebar mustache, a blonde woman that seems to be his wife, a woman in her late 20's, another girl with darker skin and a red skirt, an old guy, a man in his early twenties with a baseball cap, and a black man, who's pretty cute!" She looked back again and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Jesus Christ, Emma, move over so I can just see for myself!" Melissa rolled her eyes, sighing at her daughter, "Oh...we may be in trouble if they find us in here."

"Yeah, what if they're all murdering cannibals?" Emma said, mocking her mother.

Melissa laughed, sticking her tongue out as the younger girl did the same.

By that time, the sun had set and the air was chilly, even in the motel room the girls were in.

"Ya know what, Mom? Screw this waiting. I'm going out there!" Emma bobbed her head from side to side and rose to her feet.

"Don't you dare, you lady!" Melissa hissed, grabbing for her daughter who had already opened the door.

Emma immediately regretted her decision, visibly cringing and making a groaning sound in her throat. She gasped like a fish out of water and steeled herself behind an old RV.

"Why did I do this?" Emma took in a deep breath and slapped herself lightly on the cheek. "Shut up. You got this! You are an independent grown woman who don't need no man! Okay, stop. This isn't time for jokes. Be serious, Em. Serious. Brave. Don't be a little bitch."

She readied herself and jumped out from behind the van, tripping in the process. Everyone around turned to look at her, their expressions ranging from confusion to anger to being poker-faced.

"Hey!" Emma greeted, rubbing her sore knee. "Please don't kill me...or my mom."

She cleared her throat and released a breath when Melissa came in to view beside her.

"My daughter isn't the best at introductions," she threw Emma an aggravated look, "I'm Melissa and as you probably could see, this is my daughter, Emma. We came here from East Alabama, been traveling for what seems like forever. It's lucky we survived this long."

By that time, Emma had risen to her feet and locked arms with her mom, struggling to not maintain eye contact with anyone.

"Goddamn it!" the old man yelled, "We can't even provide for our own fucking selves, let along two more fucking people!"

Melissa furrowed her brow and looked down at the younger of the two.

"Who does this asshole think he is?" she hissed, pointing to the balding man.

Emma's eyes widened and she gasped, motioning as if to say, "Mom, keep her thoughts to yourself!"

"What do you expect me to do, Em, let him talk about us like that?"

"My dad's always like this. Don't take what he says to heart," the pale woman in her 20's informed them, placing a hand on her father's shoulder.

"Well, just keep him away from my little girl," Melissa snapped, a deep frown carved into her face. She pushed Emma farther behind her.

The old man growled, turned away, and walked to the other side of the parking lot.

Melissa groaned and placed a hand on her throbbing shoulder. Emma turned to her with a look of concern, and she noticed that a few people were watching their interactions with studying eyes.

"You're probably really dehydrated, Mom. Let's get some water, yeah?" The teen smiled, cocking her head to the side.

"No," Melissa protested, "you come first."

"You let me have the rations last time. It's your turn. Come on."

"Actually I wanna meet everyone. Maybe they can become useful allies. Bring it to me?"

Emma nodded her head in agreement and walked off towards their motel room.

The man with the handlebar mustache and his wife walked up to Melissa.

"We just thought we'd introduce ourselves, since it looks like we'll be seein' a lot of each other for awhile," the man said, Melissa noticing the country drawl in his words. He looked over to his wife. She nodded her head and he looked back at Melissa. "I'm Kenny, this is my wife, Katjaa."

"It's nice to meet you," the blonde woman told Melissa, smiling, "And our son, Duck, is over there." Katjaa motioned towards a small boy with dark hair and freckles.

Kenny spoke up and said, "Then there's Lee, Larry, Lilly, Carley, and Clementine," and pointed to each person. "But you'll probably meet 'em later."

"It's really nice to meet you guys—you have a beautiful family... I'm just happy that some of the people around here are friendly." Melissa grinned, then her brow furrowed in thought, "How old are the children?" she asked, curiosity evident in her raspy voice, tainted by years of smoking.

"Duck is ten and Clementine is eight," Katjaa told her.

Melissa's heart fell, her eyes closed, "Those poor children. Nobody should have to go through this, but at least adults can defend themselves properly. They're pretty much helpless."

"Yes, it's tragic."

Melissa looked over and noticed that Kenny had moved from his place beside his wife to inspecting a box in the back of a blue truck.

"Mom!" Emma greeted, a bottle of water in hand.

"Jesus, young lady, what took you so long? I could have died of dehydration by the time you got back," Melissa joked, combing through her daughter's dark blonde hair.

"I was talking to Carley. She's a reporter and is great with guns. Plus she's really nice," Emma told her, pursing her lips, "But we ran into each other so that's really the only reason we started talking, and I'm too lazy to put in the effort to talk to everyone else."

"They are our only hope of survival, Emma. You should get to know the people you're going to be staying with for...well, God knows how long, don't you think?"

"No..."

Melissa huffed, "Anyways, this is Katjaa, she's Kenny's wife."

"Told you! Anyways, hello. It's really nice to meet you." Emma flashed a bright smile and waved to the woman. She figured out that Kenny was the one with the mustache.

"It's nice to meet you, too. You are a very pretty girl," Katjaa told her, clasping her hands together in front of her.

"Thank you." Emma pursed her lips, furrowed her brow, "Mom, I'm hungry."

Melissa sighed with agitation and massaged the bridge of her nose. "You know that we have to keep rations, baby. We're gonna have to make that food last for as long as we can."

The teen frowned and rubbed her stomach, said, "Fine," then trudged away, slumping her shoulders in defeat.

"Teenagers..." Melissa chuckled.

Emma took the bottled water—she forgot to give it to her mom—and threw it back in to the bag it was in. She stared down the wall in front of her and clenched her teeth, thinking about how to introduce herself to each person. Brushed her bangs out of her face and blinked back the fearful tears in her eyes; she wiped them with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Stop crying," she gritted, unable to stop the flow of salty tears down her blood-stained cheeks, "Dad would hate to see you cry."

But it did nothing to help. Instead it caused sobs to bubble up from her throat and become silenced by her hand. She leaned a hand on the wall for support and just sobbed at everything that had happened. Her brother and father were dead, the world was going to shit, and Emma still couldn't let go of the past and what it did to her. For how long the cries continued she didn't know, until a nudge of her back brought her down to the real world. She looked to the side and saw a young girl smiling sweetly at her, a cloth in her outstretched hand.

"I though you may want this," the girl said, her soft voice bringing a jovial expression to Emma's face through the wet tears.

She took the cloth from the girl's hands, said, "Thank you so much. My name's Emma. What's yours, sweetie?"

"C-Clementine," the girl responded warily. She bowed her head a little.

"A pretty name for an even prettier girl."

"Thanks." Clementine's shoulders seemed to untense themselves.

"See? I'm not all awkwardness and anxiety, even though it radiates off of me like the smell of a freshly cooked cherry pie." Emma laughed, lightening the mood considerably.

"That sounds good right now. I wish I had one."

"Me too, me too..."

The two girls made their way out of the motel room, Emma wiping her face along the way. Clementine stopped to talk to her seemed-to-be dad, and Emma just stood back, twisting the cloth in her anxious hands.

"Come on, I want you to meet somebody," Clementine took her hand and walked her over to the black man from earlier.

Emma tightened her grip on the object on her hands, her knuckles turning a stark white as a tension bristled her insides. "I'm...not good with introductions, or any human interaction at all, but...I'm Emma. It's...nice to meet you." She forced a small smile.

"I'm Lee. It's nice to meet you, too," he nodded his head, the corners of his lips upturned in a slight smile, "and I'm glad that Clementine has another girl to talk to."

"Me too," Clementine said, her soft voice a strange comfort for Emma to listen to. The little girl laughed as Lee smiled down at her and pushed down the front of her purple hat. "Hey!"

Emma turned away from the two, her stomach twisting in to complicated knots at the sight. She really missed her dad.

Speaking of her father...where was her gun? She remembered grabbing it in the woods and putting it in her tote. Then...what next? How the hell did she lose her most precious possession!?

"Mom!" the blonde wailed, drawing the attention from everyone in the parking lot. "Mom!"

"With her screaming like that it's gonna attract every goddamn walker for miles!" Larry yelled, stomping over to where Melissa was comforting her daughter.

"What is it, honey?" Melissa whispered, brushing Emma's cheeks with the pads of her thumbs.

"Did you see where I put Dad's gun?" Emma asked, her voice dripping with an anxious panic.

"Hell, Emma, I don't know. You're supposed to be keeping up with it!"

"Mom, please help me find it." Emma hurried to the motel room where their bags were and searched through both messenger and tote, dumped everything out on to the weathered floor. "It's not in here!" she called out and hurredly replaced the supplies back into their bags.

"Don't worry, Emma, we'll find it."

"No, we won't, Mom! It's lost forever! We've travel miles from here to where I last had it. It'll take hours to find."

Melissa started to say something, but Larry interrupted her.

"Well, that's just fucking great. This little girl loses her damn toy and now everyone's expected to go out and risk their lives to find it?" Larry scoffed, folding his meaty arms over his chest.

"No, actually," Melissa retorted with narrowed eyes, "I was going to go by myself tonight."

"Thank fucking—"

"This woman can't go alone," Lee interjected, "It's way too dangerous out there for just one person."

"Really, Lee? You're going to risk your life for a stupid gun?" Lilly gritted, placed her hands on her slight hips.

"It's her dad's, so it's not just a gun, Lilly. Cut 'em some slack," Lee replied, shooting Emma an understanding look, "Plus, the walkers aren't as active at night."

"Damn, I shouldn't have said anything," Emma muttered and chewed nervously on her thumb.

"Language," Melissa said quickly, slapping the girl lightly on the arm. She walked away from the scene.

"Well, if it's something real important to you, I wouldn't want you to go another minute without it," Lee assured her.

The teen gave him an appreciative smile, sighing in relief.

"Thank you so much, but...you don't have to do this."

"I know, but I'm doin' it anyways."

Melissa came back, gun in hand. She also had a small bag hanging off of one of the loops on her jeans, filled with a few clips of ammunition.

The woman sucked in a breath and asked, "So, are you ready to go?"

Lee shrugged his shoulders, "I'm ready when you are."

"Great. Then let's go."

* * *

**A/N:** Well, that was a good first chapter, right? I already have the plot written out, but my idea is to expand on Season 1, because if you're anything like me, you wanna know what the heck the group did for three months. And I'm hoping this will a three-part-story (with no pairings decided yet), because I would love to improve on my writing.

BUT, I swear: this isn't any ordinary OC story. I actually have my characters thought out, a great plot, and let me tell you, the dialogue isn't the only thing I'm changing. Big stuff is coming, I promise.

(On your way out, how about leaving a nice, constructive review?)

**Next chapter: The Shunned**


	2. Chapter 2: The Shunned

**CHASING THE LIGHT—EPISODE 1½**

**Chapter Two: The Shunned**

**(This story is rated *T* for language, violence, and some gore. Rating officially may change.)**

* * *

It had been almost an hour since Melissa and Lee had left, yet Emma still shook with a nervous panic that had dug itself in to the pit of her stomach. She bounced both of her legs up and down, her hand instinctively wringing themselves together. The anxiety was killing her. What if something had happened? What if those murderers came back? What if her mom and Lee were dead because of a stupid gun? Emma put her head in her hands, releasing a deep, troubled sigh from her lungs.

"Hey, Emma."

The startled teen looked up and saw the familiar face of Clementine, a girl she had met not even two hours ago, yet the way the eight-year-old was smiling at her felt like Emma had know her for years.

"Hey, Clementine," Emma mumbled, sad that the little girl's presence was not enough to lighten the pressure in her chest.

"You look sad. Did something happen?" Clementine asked softly, studying Emma's face.

"I'm just worried about my mom and your dad is all."

"What?...Oh, Lee isn't my dad. But we've known each other since this all started. He's really nice." Clementine's lips upturned in a sweet smile. "But I don't like seeing people sad; do you wanna play with me?"

Emma hummed to herself and looked around the parking lot littered with candy wrappers, old soda cans, and random objects people had left during their stay.

"What is there to play with?"

"Hmmm, I dunno..."

"Hey," Emma said, "I have a plan. How about we both look around for something to play with and meet back here in a few minutes, yeah?"

Clementine nodded happily in agreement.

"Perfect! I bet I'll find something faster than you!"

"Nuh-uh!" the little girl protested, then raced off to look for a form of entertainment for the two of them, determined to find it faster than Emma.

Emma grinned to herself as, to her delight, the jitters seemed to slowly dissipate. Instead she willed her mind to focus on the task at hand: finding something to play with.

After a few minutes, Emma purposely came back empty-handed, even after seeing the soccer ball hiding behind the ice machine. Clementine giggled as she held up their new television, computer, phone, iPod, and video game: the hidden soccer ball from behind the ice machine.

"I told you I could find it first," Clementine joked, dropping it on the ground.

"Okay, okay, you win," Emma said, standing a few feet away from the girl, "I'm ready when you are."

Clementine kicked the ball with just enough force that it didn't roll past Emma's feet. She kicked it back. After they starting getting in to a routine, Clementine started asking her simple questions, which the teen was thankful for.

"So, what's your favorite color?" she asked, her eyes fiercely concentrating on the pavement below her.

"Purple," Emma replied, "and yours?"

"I like purple, too, because my hat's purple... I really like green..."

"Green's nice. It's funny though, because when I was younger I used to be obsessed with the color blue. All of my shirts had to be blue, the icing on my birthday cakes were blue, even the bedspread and walls in my room were blue," Emma explained, a slight smile on her lips as she thought back to when she was younger, when things were happier, better, simpler. When the fucking dead weren't eating people.

"Okay, how about another question?" Clementine offered, cocking her head to the side. She glanced up at Emma for a moment before looking back down to follow the movement of the ball.

"Yeah?"

"What's it like being a teenager?"

Emma's head snapped up instantly. She furrowed her brow and ignored the ball that bumped into the toe of her sneakers. Clementine just asked that. She asked that because...had that poor girl given up already...?

"Being a teenager isn't what you think it is," Emma sighed, kicking the ball back to Clementine, "but I know that once all this is over, you'll be able to make it. Life is shit sometimes, but it's the people that tough it out through the bad stuff in life that can really give you hope that everyone's gonna be okay..."

"Swear," Clementine simply said, softly nudging the ball with her shoe.

"What?" Emma raised an eyebrow.

"You said a swear word; I don't like them." Clementine shook her head back and forth and looked up at Emma.

"Ah, I see. Did your parents ever swear?"

"Well, my dad would sometimes when he would get mad at me or my mom," the girl replied, a small frown on her face.

"From my experience, it's how some dads are," Emma assured her, a smile forming on her lips. She kicked the ball over to Clementine.

"Where's your dad, Emma?"

Emma's breath caught in her throat, her stomach twisted in to knots, a pressure built in her chest. She sighed and cast her eyes to the pavement, caught the dirty ball under foot, and rolled it under the bottom of her shoe.

"He died a few days ago. Got bit by a walker trying to save me, and Mom had to..." Emma swallowed the thick lump in her throat and chewed on the inside of her jaw; a single gunshot rang out in her memory.

"I'm sorry. It must be really hard," Clementine apologized, sniffling as a few tears rose in her own eyes, "No wonder you're so sad..."

Emma kicked the ball in to the garbage bin behind Clementime, a clang erupted as it rammed the metal.

"It doesn't matter anymore," the blonde muttered, brushing her bangs away from her face.

* * *

The suffocating smell of rotting cadavers surrounded Melissa and Lee, mixing with the humid air in such a way that made the woman gag.

Remains of human bodies were scattered all along the forest floor, entrails hung on branches like macabre banners, fresh blood coated the grass like crimson paint. The whole scene looked like something from a horror movie.

"What...the fuck?" Lee whispered, his face contorted in pure horror.

"It looks like a fucking blood bath out here." Melissa kicked a dismembered arm out of her way and cringed at the emaciated bodies crucified on some of the trees, groaning and wiggling around as the nails holding their arms and feet started to cut their flesh further as they struggled, "Did they...hang them alive?" Melissa gasped, her mouth agape at the multiple bite marks on the victims' bodies.

"Walkers must'a got 'em," Lee concluded, folding his arm across his chest. He shook his head, "This is so fucked up."

"Yeah. What kind of people would do this?"

"Sick ones..." Lee answered, walked past Melissa, "We'd better hurry before those things get down."

Melissa nodded her head and followed him.

"So, uh...Lee...have you ever walked these woods before?" Melissa asked, biting her lip as she thought back to the encounter her and Emma had.

"You mean, do I know where the hell we are?" Lee replied, looking over at her. The mother nodded her head, and he sighed, "Not a fucking clue. I was about to ask you the same thing."

"I have no idea either."

"Perfect."

"Tell me about," Melissa scoffed, "but I appreciate you coming along...for Emma's sake, of course."

"Not a problem...I take it her dad's dead?"

Melissa sighed and lowered her head, "Yeah. He...was bitten. Held out for as long as he could."

"Ah. I'm sorry about that," Lee said, his voice somber as he looked back to the improvised path they started to walk.

"It's fine. Shit happens, ya know?" Melissa chuckled, earning a slight smile from the man beside her.

"Shit happens," he replied.

Melissa stilled beside him, her eyes locked on something behind his shoulder.

"Don't movie."

"...Did you just say—" Before Lee could finish his response, a tall, boney man slinked from the shrubs and striked Melissa on the back of her head. "Fu—" The world spun for an agonizing second and then he slipped in to a deep unconsciousness, his body falling to the ground.

The tall man dragged Melissa away, leaving nothing but an unsettling grin for his partners as they carried Lee.

* * *

"Let me go you fucking assholes!"

Lee's eyes slowly opened, the back of his head throbbed to the beat of his heart. He rolled over onto his back and slowly rose his head, facing a thrashing, angry Melissa. She tugged at the ropes binding her wrists and ankles and let out a strangled cry from her throats.

"You're fucking dead when I get out of here!" Melissa shrieked, a series of bronchial coughs erupting from her lungs, then she noticed him looking at her, "Oh, good. You're awake," cough, "About time..."

Lee examined his surroundings—the wooden walls that led to a short ceiling above their heads, the petrified carcasses that lay in piles all around them, the mixture of decaying flesh and the smell of brown-tinted blood oozing around on the floor almost made him throw up.

"Where the fuck are we!?" Lee asked the woman beside him, frantically tugging at his bindings.

"The Shunned," she replied, gaping at the wall a few feet away.

"Wha—"

"That's apparently what they call themselves," Melissa interrupted, nodding her head to a large poster that read "The Shunned: Earth's hidden salvation."

"What, they think they're god or somethin'?" Lee scoffed and leaned back against the sticky wall. He didn't wanna know what he just felt...

"Apparently they're a group of murderers who'll kill anyone they perceive as a threat," the woman explained, cocked her head to the side. She noticed his look of confusion then said, "I heard them talking about us in the other room. Apparently we're in a cabin or something."

"Great. So, what, they're gonna kill us and make us in to fucking soup?"

Melissa smirked, "Maybe."

"Not funny," Lee warned her, narrowed his eyes.

"I was kidding."

"I see where your girl gets her humor from, then."

"I take it you don't have any kids?" Melissa mocked his question from earlier and nudged him in the shoulder.

"I see how it is," Lee joked, earning a chuckle from both of them, "But no, no, I don't got any."

The mother studied the man beside her; he was much too attractive to be alone. "How about a wife?"

Lee seemed reluctant to answer, but after being silent for a few seconds he replied, "Eh, used to."

Melissa turned her head, knowing not to pry any further, and faced the wall in front of her in order to ignore the decaying, disemboweled child beside of her. She heard Lee sigh and felt him move a little; his elbow knocked in to the back of her shoulder.

"Fuck!" the woman hissed and leaned quickly away from the squirming man, her shoulder drumming with a sharp pain, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get out of these things," Lee said matter-of-factly, struggled for another minute, then retired against the wall.

"Did you really think that would work?" Melissa's voice was monotonous; bored.

"Not really, but it was worth a try," he shrugged. Looked around the room for anything else they could use to break out.

"I swear to God," Melissa chuckled, "Finding something in here would've been too easy, Lee."

Suddenly, the door to their room burst open, two men stomping through the doorway.

* * *

Emma rolled over on the lumpy mattress in her room, her head unable to be cleared. She wiped away a fresh set of tears and instead focused on the silence of her surroundings. No crickets were heard, nor the chirp of birds; nothing. It was as if the whole word had just...given up. Everything was dead. Silent. Waiting on this terrible thing to end.

But it was never going to end. People could say whatever they wanted about this ending or building a life again or going back to their jobs or building a new house or getting married and having children but Emma was smart—she knew not to wish for those things, nor hope that they would somehow become possible.

Clementine stirred in her sleep, cuddling closer to Emma. She had told the teen earlier that she didn't want to sleep alone in fear of recent events.

"Do you wanna sleep with me? Cause I'm really afraid of the dark and Mom isn't here," Emma had said, then flashed a small smile.

Clementine had obviously agreed to the arrangement, seeing as how the girl was sleeping in her bed.

"It's really cold," Clementine said, her voice still tinged with the remaining wave of sleep.

"Yeah, it is. Come here." Emma opened her arms and the little girl willingly snuggled into them, "Better?"

"Yeah...You smell weird."

"It's my new perfume. I call it "Zombie Guts: Apocalypse Edition."

"Ewww!"

"Well, you don't smell like sunshine and rainbows either. Besides, we all smell terrible. Rolling around in blood and rotting flesh and not showering for days tends to make a person smell bad." Emma chuckled when Clementine made a disgusted face.

The teen sighed, leaned her head down on the pillow and pulled her little companion closer to her chest. The rest of the night carried on like that: nodding off to reach the far edges of rest, snapping back to the waking world, and making small talk with each other.

It was the best night Emma had in a while, that was for sure.

* * *

The next morning, the teen awoke to a blinding light pressed against her eyelids. Footsteps in the room. The shuffling of bags. Emma slowly opened her eyes and watched Melissa and Lee walk around the room for a few minutes, put stuff in bags, moving things.

"What are you guys doing?" Emma murmured, annoyance evident in the groggy edges of her voice, "How long have you been back?" She tried to move her arms, then realized they weren't filled with an 80-pound girl like when she finally fell asleep.

"They've been back for a few hours," Clementine informed her, walking in to the room, "you've been asleep for a while."

"Oh," the teen muttered, rolling lazily on to her back. She really didn't want to get up.

Melissa reached inside a new bag and pulled out what looked to be—she threw it on to the bed, landing beside Emma. It was her dad's gun. She hurredly picked it up, examined both sides for scratches. It was in perfect condition, aside from the initials "T.S." on the side, where the grip would have been.

"Mom, who's..."T.S."?"

Melissa's face visibly paled. She looked over to Lee, whose eyes were locked on the gun. They glanced over at each other in a silent conversation.

"It's nobody," the mother said warily, still looking at the man, "Just...nobody."

"Well, where have you guys been all night?" Emma questioned. When neither adults answered her, she demanded, "Where were you? What happened? You guys are covered in human blood, Lee has a cut on his face, and your jeans have rips in the legs, Mom."

"That's no place for you to ask, okay? I got your dad's gun back, and that's all you need to know," Melissa yelled, her eyes dark...distant, "You're a damn child. So act like one." She threw a distraught look to Lee and left the room.

Emma lowered her eyes, her hands ran over the "T.S." carved in to her most prized possession. She looked over to the window in the far left of the room and stared out of the curtainless glass, out at the trees lively and green, the cloudless sky. The beginning of tears made her throat knot up, the burning in her eyes...

"Your mom didn't mean that," Lee assured her and sighed, sitting softly in front of her on the edge of the bed, "We've both just had a real rough night."

"Yeah, well, I'm having a rough time too, okay? It's not just the adults that hurt—I speak for us kids when I say we're all at our fucking whit's end with this shit!" Emma shook her head and held her breath as if she were also holding in her tears. She sighed, "...It's just that...no matter what I've done, how terribly I've messed up since this all started: she's never ever yelled at me like that."

"Last night was...nobody needs to know about what we saw, what happened to us, especially one of the children. You guys go through enough already."

Emma looked up at Lee, licked her lips, and nodded her head, "I understand. I won't ask again."

"Good to hear," he said, lips curled up in to a reassuring smile, "Your mom's an adult who can take care of herself. You don't need'ta worry."

"Thanks, Lee. I appreciate it."

"Any time." The man patted her knee under the covers, got up stiffly, and slowly left the room.

"But I can't protect MY-fucking-self! It's not Mom I'm worried about," she muttered, '...Time to get up, I guess,' Emma thought, lumbering lazily out of the bed she was in.

She walked over to her pack, got out her supplies, and went to the side of the inn. After brushing her teeth—without any toothpaste, since her and her mother had to preserve it for future use—and rinsing her mouth out, she put the items back up and walked over to where the group was.

"There you are. We were worried you were glued to the damn bed," Kenny joked, tossing her a purple object.

In no mood to joke around, Emma looked at it and—

"You know what, Kenny?!" She threw the small troll back at him and huffed, "You don't look too pretty either."

"I'm not s'posed to," he countered, walking back over to his truck, "What crawled up your ass this morning?"

"Nothing," she snapped, walking away toward the gates.

After stopping, Emma looked around at everyone, then suddenly felt out of place. Her and her mother didn't even know these people. Neither side knew nothing about the other besides first names, so why were most of them so friendly to the two?

Instead of wanting to socialize with anybody—including herself—Emma stole a piece of white paper and a piece of blue chalk from Clementine's makeshift desk. She walked over to sit behind the ice machine away from everyone's view, pressed her chalk to the paper and—

"Listen here, you crazy bitch! My first priority is my daughter, not any one of you; we don't even know you, anyways. And, as a matter-of-fact, we almost died for this food, and I'm not giving it away just to appease you and your crazy fucking daddy!"

"Oh shit," Emma muttered. She could feel the oncoming fight bristling the air around her, causing a pressure to build in her chest— any kind of fighting gave her panic attacks.

"The least you could do for us letting you stay here is to let us have some of your food!" Lilly yelled back, her voice high-strung.

"We don't owe you anything, Little Miss Princess," Melissa retorted, yanking the bag out of Lilly's hand, "And another thing—"

"Stop it!" Emma interrupted, pulling her mom away from the other woman, "That's enough. Give 'em some food; it's the only right thing to do after Lee helped us."

"At least one of them has some fuckin' sense," Larry prodded in, laughing to himself.

"Shut the fuck up! Nobody asked you anything." The mother grabbed her daughter's hand and glared at him.

"If not everyone, give some to Clementine and Duck—they can have their own personal share of it," Emma whispered, looked up at her mother's softening face; the wrinkles next to her eyes slowly faded, as did the frown lines on her forehead.

"Are you sure?" Melissa asked in the same low voice as her daughter. Emma nodded her head, "Okay, baby. If it's okay with you." The mother looked over at the faces behind her, at the people who were so kind to her and Emma that it hurt. They had only been with the group for, what, a day? Yet it felt like much longer than that. And then she decided: "Only if everyone else gets a share. Especially Clementine and Duck."

A deep frown carved itself in to Larry's face and he growled for second before turning away and getting back to work. Lilly stared at Melissa's back, then Emma's, and retreated in to her room.

"Here, you guys, this is the stock we've built from over a hundred traveled miles." Melissa emptied the contents of all the food bags on the bed and stood back, proudly looking at their pile.

"Goddamn," Kenny swore with a laugh, "This food'll last us for weeks, maybe even a month or two if we spare our servings enough."

"Just nobody touch my ravioli. That stuff is mine," Emma announced, snatching up a few cans within her reach. Everyone looked at her as if her nose were inside out, "What? What'd I say?"

"Awww man. I love ravioli." Duck sagged his shoulders and leaned in to his mom.

"It's okay, Duck," Katjaa consoled him and looking pleadingly at the girl, "maybe Emma will let you have some."

Emma looked over at Duck—who was eyeing her ravioli—and turned her body so the cans in her arms were out of sight. His face fell, followed by an "awwwww". The teen sighed, rolled her eyes, and presented her food to him.

"Okay, this is the plan, Duck. Are you listening?" the blonde asked, inspecting his face. He looked up at her, eyes full of happiness, and replied with a quick nod of his head, "Good. Now, I'll give you a third of the ravioli. That means that out of every three cans, ONLY one is yours. Deal?"

Duck sighed, glanced at her food, then smiled from ear to ear and nodded his head, "DEAL!"

"So, on to more IMPORTANT things," Melissa jeered, ruffling her daughter's long hair, "Let's separate this between each other. How do we wanna divide this up?"

Clementine was the first to speak up, "Well, maybe we could—no, that wouldn't work. Ooh! Maybe—nope," she sighed, "I got nothin'."

"We'll figure something out. Maybe a schedule or something," Melissa told the group, "but we'll make sure all of us get at least something to eat every other day."

"And even if we get low, we can just run out to Macon and get food," Carley added, nodding her head.

Emma stood in the corner of the room, awkwardly holding her cans of ravioli. She looked at everyone in the room, realized how happy they were. If only she could feel like that. It just made her feel even more out of place in this "family" her mom had become a part of, seemingly leaving her in the middle of nowhere to fend for herself.

But it wasn't like she ever thrived for someone's company. She loved being alone...It was when she did her best thinking.

And with that, she left the chattering group and went back to her white paper and blue chalk behind the ice machine. But, she noticed something off about it, something that she didn't put there...

The initials "T.S." were written across the paper.

* * *

**A/N:** So as you can see from the few first chapters, Melissa is a dramatic hot-head who is extremely compassionate towards others who are the same towards her, while Emma is a anxiety-ridden introvert who loves children, yet has a LOT of issues, even without the zombie apocalypse stressing her out. I think it's a good duo we have going on here, don't you think?

As for this chapter, I decided NOT to reveal how Melissa and Lee made it out of the cabin, but I have a few reasons; one is that I want to leave some questions to be answered and speculated on, and the others, well, I can't tell you. It'll be explained, though, I promise. I've maybe a ROUGH chapter outline and figured out that this'll be 10-15 chapters at least. Pretty good considering it's only a three month time span.

_So, who's this "T.S." and why are they playing with Emma? What the hell is going on with this story? When is it going to get to some good Lee/Melissa action? Why did Emma give her precious ravioli to Duck?_

I dunno, you tell me...

(How about you leave me one of those reviews and tell me what you think?)

**Next Chapter: Signs**


	3. Chapter 3: The Note

**CHASING THE LIGHT—EPISODE 1½**

**Chapter Three: The Note**

**(This story is rated *T* for language, violence, and some gore. Rating officially may change.)**

* * *

_In spirit she's drifted to the ocean_  
_All those years of waiting for the water_  
_She's watching long shadows call in the tide_  
_But the sunset by the sea is in her mind_  
_The sunset by the sea is in her mind_  
_..._  
_These days you'll find her walking_  
_Singing to the deep sea_  
_But she will always love him_  
_Lost up in the mountains_  
_..._  
_The sun set on the ocean  
Gathering shells and beach glass  
Dancing with the rolling waves  
It gives her peace of mind  
_

_—"The Ocean" Alela Diane_

* * *

"If you could have any animal, what would it be and why?"

Melissa looked over at Carley and pursed her lips, focusing on what her answer would be. A smile formed on her face. Her mind strayed from the question, instead focusing on recent events. It had been five days since the duo joined the group, five days since her and Lee found out about the crazies in the woods.

The group was lounging around the empty parking lot in their chairs, moonlight shining on their faces, as they each played a game that weighed upon asking a question to one person of their choosing.

"Any?" she asked slyly, to which Carley nodded her head slowly, brunette hair swaying back and forth upon slim shoulders, "I guess a...giraffe?" The woman shrugged her own aching, stiff shoulders.

Lee chuckled amusingly, studying her profile on the worn couch. "Really?"

"Yeah! I mean, you could always climb away from the dead if you had a giraffe," the mother joked with a tone that dripped sarcasm, elbowing Lee playfully in the ribs. They both grinned at their playful banter.

"Yeah," they heard Emma scoff, "until they claw the poor animal's intestines out and rip off its limbs." The teen huffed, her legs curled themselves protectively against her chest. She rested her cheek on the soft sleeve of her jacket as she sat in an uncomfortable metal lawnchair with a seat made up of rows of plastic strips placed side-by-side.

"Come on, Emma; it was a joke," Carley huffed tiredly, eyeing the teenage girl with slight curiosity and a critiquing gaze, "What's got you so upset?"

Emma shrugged her shoulders lazily and buried her face into her arm, effectively hiding her grim expression from the group. She didn't know whether to tell everyone about the note she found in her pack that morning, or keep it to herself, "I'm just tired," she muttered, sniffling.

Melissa looked hopelessly at her daughter sitting across from her and sighed with a wavered breath, "You guys'll get used to the mopey attitude. She's been this way since before all this happened." As she was speaking, Emma timidly wiped her eyes with her sleeve and rested her head back on her arm.

"Well," Carley started, accompanied by hunched-over shoulders, "whatever's going on isn't any of my business, but I really hope you feel better. From what your mom's told me, you both deserve a little happiness."

"Thanks," Emma said quickly, her voice muffled by the jacket she had hidden her face in.

"No problem," Carley replied with a comforting smile.

* * *

The next morning, everyone at the inn woke with a feeling of inevitable dread that they couldn't shake off. The day went on as normal, yet Emma never got out of bed. Never thought about it. Instead, she lay there the whole morning, staring at the note from T.S...

As Melissa was walking over toward Lee to start up a much-needed conversation, Katjaa placed a soft hand on her shoulder as she walked by, pulling her softly to the side. She turned around and hummed in response, noting the anxious look in the blonde's eyes.

"Is Emma still in bed?" Katjaa asked, her voice and eyes filled with both concern and worry. When Melissa nodded her head warily, the blonde told her: "That really worries me, Melissa. She's been quite upset lately, and it's very hard to ignore."

The other woman simply shook her head in disbelief, "Like I told everyone last night, she's always like this. Some days are better than others, but since she's been without her medicine—"

"Medicine?" Katjaa leaned forward a little, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah. She has depression and anxiety, been diagnosed and everything." Melissa turned her head towards Emma's door, "I just think things are beginning to get too much for her, ya know?"

Katjaa sighed and shook her head, "I think all of us are that way."

"Definitely."

Both mothers walked over to the circle of furniture near the rooms, where they both sat on the loveseat. They started chatting about everything and anything, ranging from children to movies to the kinds of picture frames they liked most.

"Hey, Melissa?"

Said-woman looked up to find the man owning the deep voice she had heard standing before her. She looked up and smiled in greeting.

"Hi, Lee. Do you need something?" she asked, the hands placed in her lap started to wring themselves, silently knowing something was off.

"Yeah, actually. I need you to give out today's rations for me. Carley and I are gonna patrol the woods for a few hours," Lee told her, motioning over to the reporter intensely loading her gun by the makeshift gate.

Melissa forced a smile and rose from her seat. She really hated that job. "Okay, that's fine. Have fun."

Lee nodded his head and walked away towards Carley.

The woman rolled her eyes angrily. "He could have chosen anyone to do that damn job today."

"He must trust you then," Katjaa pointed out, "Considering Lilly more than likely told him to give the job to someone else."

Melissa sighed detestedly, "I guess. Might as well get Emma up."

"Clementine and Duck have been asking about her all day." Katjaa chuckled, "They really like her."

* * *

Emma sat up against the headboard, resting her back against a flattened pillow. She stared at the wall in front of her, listening to the mindless chatter of Duck in her ears. Clementine sat beside her on the bed, styling her brittle blonde hair to pass the time.

"Do you wanna go outside and the kick the ball again?" Clementine asked softly, hopeful. "I don't like seeing you sad, Emma. It makes me sad."

The teenager looked down at the small girl sitting beside her, flashed her a fake smile. "I'm okay, if a little overwhelmed," she whispered, patting Clementine on the leg.

"Why do I feel like you're lying?" Clementine pressed, pulling away.

Emma rolled her eyes and brushed her bangs out of her face. Lee had been telling that girl every lie in the world and she never gave a second thought to it, but when Emma told her something...

"Why are you suddenly questioning stuff now?"

Clementine stared at her with a "what-are-you-talking-about" face.

"Do you know how many lies Lee's told you just within the last few days?" Emma snapped, rising from the bed. She hurredly pulled on her jacket to cover up her mutilated arms.

"I just asked you a question," Clementine replied, her face signifying hurt, "you don't have to be so mean."

The teen's eyes widened, her mouth opened in a silent apology. She released a slow breath. "I'm sorry," she breathed, striding across the room to open the door. "I'm sorry."

There was a second where Emma hesitated, her hand placed on the knob. 'Nothing is going to change. No matter what we do, where we go, we'll always be running for our lives. Always be fighting against both dead and the living. So, what's the point?' she thought solemnly.

Emma swung open the door and stepped out into the parking lot, sunlight bright in her eyes. She ignored the curious eyes upon her and instead took the note from her jacket pocket, opening it to the chicken scratch handwriting inside:

_Dear Emma,_

_I would like to cordially invite you to join a group of the most cunning, strong individuals left on this Earth. The name of said group will not be given, for if you come blindly, you will be instantly trusted. We suggest you sneak away from the unfit group you are in and join us before you become food for the dead. We have plently of supplies to fit your needs (including ravioli), and will welcome you with open arms. All you have to do is bring the children in your group so all of you will be in a much better environment. Good luck staying alive otherwise. We'll be watching,_

_-T.S._

"Mom!" Emma shrieked, "I have something you need to see." She strode over to her mother and the rest of the group.

Melissa furrowed her brow as she cased her daughter's appearance. "Are you crying, Emma?"

"Just read the note!" the girl urged, placing it in her mother's shaking hand.

The woman took a few seconds to read the paragraph on the paper, growing increasingly pale with each word that passed. "Oh my fucking God," she whispered, bringing a hand to her mouth. There were blood splatters dotting the paper.

"What now?" Larry groaned angrily, a frown carved its way into his face.

"Lee, you need to read this," Melissa told him urgently, handing the note over to him.

After a few seconds, he broke his gaze from the paper and rested them on Emma. "Emma, who gave you this?" She lowered her head shifted her eyes. "It's okay. You can tell us. We won't be mad."

"I'm not a child," she snapped in response, her eyes squinted. "Besides, nobody gave it to me. I found it in my pack a few days ago."

Melissa's eyes widened as she took a defensive stance. "A few days ago? A few days ago!? Do you know what could have happened to you or Clementine or Duck?" She walked over to Emma and shook her shoulders. "You could have died. They could have taken you right under my nose and I would've know too late—"

"Mom, it's not a big deal," Emma whispered, surveying her mother's wild expression. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't wanna be a burden just like last time."

"Last time you were sick, you couldn't have done anything about it. But I'm glad we got you to a hospital because they helped you, didn't they?"

"For a while, but I—I'm starting to feel that was again."

"And again, I'll help you get through it. We'll help you get through it, okay? You're not alone."

"Yeah," Kenny added, a smirk on his lips, "and you're not gettin' rid of us either. Same goes for you, Melissa." The woman laughed lightheartedly.

After the crowd parted slowly, each person added their commentary on the note situation. Clementine walked over to Emma with a shy smile on her face, then grabbed her hand and squeezed it as if to say "I'm here". Emma sadly looked down at her. Clementine's smile slowly disappeared and she pulled away, lowering her head. The girl walked over to Lee, while Emma trudged over to the ice machine where she sunk down against the wall, reaching for her coloring pages.

"What the...?" Instead of paper and chalk, her fingertips brushed against a metal surface. "Is that a camera?" She lifted up the object and inspected it thoroughly. "Hmmmmm. Let's see what—" The lens revealed itself and the screen came on. Emma shuffled through the pictures in the gallery and was shocked to find picture after picture of her and the kids. 459 of them. "Holy fuck," she whimpered, throwing the camera at the fence across from her.

* * *

Carley and Lee examined the woods before them. The trees looked menacing at their height, their leaves casting shadows everywhere. Flowers were wilted, fruit was sitting on the ground, rotten and mushy. Corpses were strewn along the forest floor, a light coat of dirt covering their bodies.

"Do you think somebody dug 'em up?" Carley muttered, nodding her head toward the bodies.

"What kind of sick fuck would willingly dig up a dozen corpses, especially knowing that they eat people?" Lee replied, shrugging his shoulders with an accompanying deep frown on his lips.

"In this day and age, ya never know. People are doing some crazy shit," the woman pointed out, advancing forward. She stepped over the bodies and made her way through the entangled branches. Carley heard light whining in the distance, so she decided to obey her instinct and follow it. It could've been a child, and by the sound of it, that idea seemed extremely plausible.

"Carley?!" She heard Lee calling out for her, but decided to throw a quick "I'm okay!" in response and keep going. The crying was getting louder with each footstep.

Eventually, the brunette made it to a small, grass-less clearing. The trees loomed eerily overhead and shrouded all sources of light from above. But she couldn't stop—she had to keep moving; it sounded like the child was a few feet away anyways. There was a second of pure silence, the rustling of branches, and then high-pitched barking.

"Oh my God. It's a puppy!" Carley lifted up the thing nipping at her leg and walked back through the way she came. "Oh, aren't you a cutie? Clementine will love you. We have a whole group, ya know, so maybe you won't have to cry all the time from being lonely." The puppy looked up at her with wide, cerulean eyes, happiness shining in them. Its white fur was matted with crimson along its back and the top of its head.

Carley heard a sigh from her friend and looked up at him. "Is that a dog?" Lee asked skeptically, folding his arms across his chest.

"Yeah. I heard the little girl crying and went to see what it was. She's beautiful, isn't she? I think she may be a husky, but I can't tell with all the blood on her."

Lee's features relaxed once he saw the puppy lick Carley's neck. "She seems friendly enough, and I'm sure the kids'll love her. Why don't we take her back with us?"

"What do you think Lilly'll say?"

"Nothing she hasn't said before." Lee shook his head slowly and walked back towards the inn, Carley following behind with their new companion.

* * *

"What the _hell_ were you two thinking?!" Lilly hissed angrily, her face contorted into a look of malice. "We're barely getting by ourselves, so how the _fuck_ are we gonna feed a damn puppy?"

"Well, they oughta have some dog food over in Macon. We could check the shops again," Lee explained with a wave of his hand. "I really think we should keep her. It'll give all of us some much-needed hope, don't you think?"

Lilly and Lee stared at each other for a long beat before the woman closed her eyes and sighed in defeat. "Fine. Do what you want. It's not like you guys listen to me anyways."

Clementine opened her mouth in an excited smile, hugged the puppy closer to her chest. "What should we name her?"

"How about Lucy?" Carley suggested.

"Sophie?" Melissa added swiftly, a satisfied smile on her face.

"I like Bailey," Emma shrugged.

* * *

**A/N:** What do you think they should name her? Anyways, I hope you liked this short chapter. Don't forget to review on the way out! ^.^


	4. Chapter 4: Conflict

**CHASING THE LIGHT—EPISODE 1½**

**Chapter Four: Conflict**

**(This story is rated *T* for language, violence, and some gore. Rating officially may change.)**

* * *

_As I watch_  
_You start to grow up_  
_All I can do is hold you tight  
..._

_Clouds will rage in_  
_Storms will race in_  
_But you will be safe in my arms_  
_Rains will pour down_  
_Waves will crash all around_  
_But you will be safe in my arms  
..._

_Story books are full of fairy tales_  
_Of kings and queens and the bluest skies_  
_My heart is torn just in knowing_  
_You'll someday see the truth from lies_

_— "In My Arms" Plumb  
..._

_/wa tch ?v=T7 Zxyoj rkPU_

* * *

"Hey, Kenny! You got that RV fixed yet?" Melissa called from the couch she was laying on. She threw back the bottle of whiskey Kenny had let her take earlier that day and patted her chest roughly. "Shit—I've haven't drank in years. I forgot it was this strong."

"Oh, stop bein' a baby." Kenny walked around the side of the RV and leaned his arm against it proudly, oil covering his shirt.

"Shut up." The mother cocked her head and motioned towards the vehicle, alcohol swishing around. "That thing fixed yet?"

"Damn well better be," he scoffed, patting the side roughly.

Melissa pursed her lips. "Are you still wanting to leave?"

"You damn right I am. I'm takin' my family with me." He nodded his head. "You and Emma are welcome to come along."

Melissa smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Kenny. I'll talk to her."

"Glad to hear it."

Melissa lifted herself from the couch and watched Emma and the kids kick around the soccer ball they had found. The teen was smiling and laughing despite her emotions a few days before. The note... The woman shook her head. She refused to think about it, refused to make herself upset.

Something nudged against the back of her legs, rubbing against them in an effort to get her attention. Small paws pressed against the front of her legs, a tail wagging back and forth.

"Sophie," Melissa whispered affectionately, lifting the puppy up into her arms. A loving lick wet her cheek. "You are so beautiful. You'll grow up to be a great dog, I just know it. And you have to protect Emma for me, okay?" She placed a kiss atop Sophie's head.

And then everything went to shit.

"Emma!" Lilly shrieked from atop the RV, pointing her gun towards the woods, "get the kids away from the walls!"

"You got it!" the teen replied quickly, grabbing Duck's hand and letting Clementine lead them behind a thick wooden plank near the steps. She looked over at the little girl and saw the soccer ball clutched tightly between her arms, looking at the ground. "It's okay. Maybe it was just a—"

The blaring of several gun shots rang out around the parking lot, the air tainted with the smell of gunpowder and iron.

"Oh my God!"

Emma peeked over the wood and gasped at the chaos surrounding them, the curiosity of what the screaming was about roused her. And what made her spring into action.

She jumped over the mini wall and urged her legs over to where Lilly sat out of reach to the attackers, shaking hands pressed against Larry's bleeding chest. Emma crawled over to them once she decided she was tired of being the victim.

"Give me your jacket," Lilly ordered upon seeing her, switching hands to claw at her sleeve.

"But how is that—"

"Just give it to me!"

Emma quickly obeyed, handing it over to the frantic woman. It painfully reminded her of the loss she had to endure with her father, so she gave up her possession freely in the hopes that at least one person wouldn't have to lose someone they loved.

"Now go get somebody, Lee or—or Kenny, or your mom, or someone!"

The blonde took a deep breath, waited for a shot to be fired, and sprang out from behind the old car. She miscalculated. A searing pain shredded through her leg, along with skin and tissue and bone, even her pants. She dropped to the ground with grit teeth, the large hole on her thigh making her sick.

She screamed in agony, the pain growing worse as she dragged herself into cover. Shallow breaths were accompanied by bloodied hands and tear-stained cheeks.

"Help me! Mom!" she tried to scream, but couldn't because of the tightening in her throat. It felt like being in a dream with something terrible happening and not being able to anything—to talk or scream or move, and it was the worst feeling she had ever experienced.

Emma dragged herself closer to Larry's dying body, the realization that she would die right there finally hit her. She accepted it. Nobody was coming for her.

'Guess it's finally my time to go,' she thought somberly, resting her head on the heated concrete. Closed her eyes.

"Everybody, let's go! I can't hold them off any longer!" Carley's voice was distant, as if Emma's ears had been filled with water. "Lilly, get your ass over here!"

"I swear to God, Carley! Fuck you!"

'Where...where is everybody? Don't they see me?' The teenager slowly opened her eyes as she felt her arm being pulled.

"Get up or we're leaving you behind." It was Lilly. She was looking ahead at something with cautious eyes. "Come on or we'll all get eaten!"

Emma groggily—with the help of the woman—lifted herself to her knees, but she couldn't move her leg. It sent bolts of electricity through her body. But the sight before made her scream and shuffle backwards on her bottom. Larry, in all of his 300-pound, 6'2 glory, was staggering angrily towards her. At a quick pace for a walker, if the previous information wasn't enough to terrify a person.

"Oh, Goddamn it!" Lilly released her arm and ran to the RV, but all that accomplished was her father roughly yanking the girl's foot towards him.

"Fu-fuckfuckfuck," she stammered, groping for the gun tucked into the back of her jeans. The man's face—those teeth—closed in on her leg, but Emma tried to fight him off with little to no progress. She panicked once hearing the RV's engine rumble to life, then the sound of rubber against concrete.

In all of two seconds, Larry's dead corpse reeled back and became lifeless yet again, just how he should have been. Emma panted, lowering the gun slowly. Blood splattered her whole body, especially the surface of her leggings. She was pulled away and carried to the RV, which she had to leap into given it's picked-up speed. Walkers were everywhere, Larry was dead, and they had lost the inn to their attackers. Emma had a gut feeling that it was the same person who was harassing her.

"I can't believe this," Carley whispered slowly, burying her face in her hands. "Larry's dead, Emma is shot, and we lost the only good thing that's happened to us since this shit started."

Melissa handed her daughter her pack and the coloring sheets she had been drawing earlier that day. "Here."

Emma sniffed, exhaling, sitting wearily on the floor—with no intention of getting up. "I lost my jacket."

"Well, we can get you another one. It'll be okay. Nobody'll judge you."

She lowered her head and wiped her eyes. "I hate this. Nothing goes right."

"Well, of course. What'd you expect?" Lilly scoffed, her voice dripping with venom. "Nothing ever works out. It would be too easy."

"My leg is killing me," Emma whimpered, clutching onto her bleeding calf with shaking hands.

"Katjaa, can you come here? We need your help!" Melissa lifted her daughter up by the arm and placed her on one of the cushioned seats.

The blonde woman got up from her chair at the front of the RV and walked over to Emma. She kneeled down and inspected the wound with careful eyes. "This is very bad, Emma."

"I know," the girl hissed, grit her teeth silently as the vet rolled up her pant leg. "_This is bullshit_," everyone turned to look at her, surprised by her sudden outburst, "What was the terrible thing we did in our lives to deserve this? You would think somebody would give us a fucking break."

"That's not how the world works," Lilly spat, leaning against the wall with crossed arms. "You'd think you would've learned it by now."

"I'm getting really tired of your shit, Lilly." Melissa stood up and placed a hand against the opposite wall to balance herself. "You really need to stop treating everybody like they're shit stuck on your shoe, including my _daughter_!"

"Maybe if your daughter wasn't so _useless_ we could've saved a life today! You ever thought about that?"

The mother sucked in a breath, exhaled angrily and—"Stop this fucking RV, Kenny!"

Kenny shook his head and laughed sarcastically. "I swear to God...Here's the thing: we can't afford to stop right now, so figure out how to solve your little problem _on_ the RV."

Emma shook her head as a sob escaped her lips. She just wanted all of this to be over. The fighting, the pain, life. It hurt to breathe, knowing that her lungs forced her to stay on this Earth longer than she wanted.

"Stop guys. Please," she begged, burying her face into her hands.

"Ya know, I always knew there was going to be something wrong with letting you two join this group, and look, I was right!" Lilly raised her arms and motioned to the whole interior of the RV.

Melissa reached forward and grabbed Lilly roughly by the wrist. "Listen here, bitch: we could have lived fine _without_ you guys, and maybe our life would have been much better off not knowing _anybody_ here!"

"We could easily shove you out of this moving car, if that's what you want! Since you don't wanna be here!" Lilly stepped closer toward Melissa, her stance defensive and ready to fight. Kill if she had to.

"Put your hands on me or Emma and I swear to God, you won't have to worry about the walkers getting a hold of you because I will, _personally_!" Melissa shoved Lilly against the sink and held her by the shoulders. The other woman kicked her away, and Melissa hit her back against the table, but she quickly advanced again.

Emma was bawling; she tried to hold her mother back as Katjaa simultaneously worked on her hurt leg, ushering her to sit down.

"Stop moving. I can't help you if you don't sit still," Katjaa calmly told her, resting a hand on her arm.

"Stop it! Why? Why are you trying to hurt each other!?"

The fighting stopped as everyone turned to look at Clementine standing next to the women:

"The only thing we have now is each other, so why are you fighting? You should be hugging and being happy that everyone is still alive. I don't understand..." the little girl said distraughtedly.

The RV suddenly lurched forward with a loud '_POP_!', screams erupted from within the vehicle, then it slowly crawled to a stop.

"Jesus, Ken, what the hell happened?" Katjaa asked frantically, pulling herself upright after almost being knocked off her feet.

"I dunno, but I think it may be a busted tire," he responded, his tone curious, then walked through the small space and out the door.

"I'll go help him," Lee added, following his friend out the exit.

Carley nodded her head, pushing away from the table. "Me too."

Emma sighed, pressed a hand to her chest in an attempt to calm her beating heart. She shook her head.

"Are you okay?" the little girl asked quietly, taking a seat beside her. "That was scary."

"Yeah, it was."

"Scary?" Duck mocked. "That was awesome! Everybody was all loud and mean and then 'BAM!' and then you guys were like 'Nooooooooooo!' It was so cool." He finished off his sentence with a ditsy laugh.

Both girls cocked their heads to the side and gave each other a sideways glance.

"Emma?" Said girl looked over to Katjaa at the sound of her name, "do you have any shorts or anything? These dirty leggings you're wearing won't be good to prevent infection."

She blinked her eyes in a moment of thought. "I think I may have some in my bag. The leather one."

The older woman lifted up the bag, placed it on the table, and shuffled through its contents until she pulled out a pair of faded shorts. "Are these the ones?" She held them out to Emma.

"Yes. Thank you." The teen took them out of Katjaa's hands.

The vet turned to her distrait son and gave him a motherly smile. "Duck, can you go up front for a little bit and make sure your father is doing his work right?"

"Yeah! I can pretend to be a race car driver!" He ran to the front and sat in the driver seat, badly-made engine noises echoing through the cabin.

"Now you can change. I won't look." Katjaa turned away and fiddled with the supplies on the round table until she was done.

After a minute, Emma announced that she had finished changing, so Katjaa came back to kneel in front of her, confused at Sophie's appearance in the teen's lap. The teen softly ran her fingers through the puppy's downy fur.

It took a few minutes to disinfect the wound, apply some healing ointment, and dress it—even by that time, Kenny was still working on the tire outside.

Lee appeared in the doorway, a solemn expression on his face. Everyone looked at him like one would a guardian angel, hoping that he would be carrying good news, but instead he waved Melissa over. "I have some good and bad news you probably wanna hear."

"Shit," Melissa muttered, sighing, "tell me the bad news first."

He shifted his eyes to Clementine and Emma as they sat and talked and pet Sophie, then eventually looked back to her. "The tire's blown to pieces. We're not gonna be able to go anywhere without a new one."

All the mother could do for a minute was blink out of shock of the news she had received. "And...the good news?" She could only imagine what the good news was...

"Kenny says that we can head a few miles up the road and find a small town—"

"—and when there are small towns, there are gas stations and car tires." She smiled internally at the sudden luck they had gotten. Maybe everything would be okay after all.

"Exactly."

"Well," Melissa looked down and wrung her hands together nervously, "how are we gonna get 'em?"

"Me and Kenny were gonna go."

She raised her head and stared at him, her eyes filled with sadness and unease. "I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, with the way Lilly and I are fighting—"

"—you need to stay here with Emma. She needs you right now more than ever."

"Well, she trusts you really well... maybe you could watch her while I'm gone." Tears filled her eyes. She shrugged and let out a weak laugh. "Lee, I can't see her like this. It breaks my heart to know that, as a _parent_, I failed my _child_. I failed to protect her, to put her first, to keep her from herself."

There was a long silence.

Lee sighed and let his arms hang loosely at his side. "Look, I don't know what happened in the past, but what I've seen lately, you seem like a great mother," he assured her, stepping down onto the dirt below. "If you wanna go with Kenny and get a break, go ahead. I sure as hell ain't stoppin' ya." Then he started to walk off.

"Hey, Lee?" He paused, turned around, and looked questioningly up at her. "Thank you," she mouthed, to which he returned with a slight smile.

* * *

"So, you really wanna go to South Georgia?" Kenny pondered to Melissa as they walked cautiously alongside the road, weapons in hand. It smelled like rotting flesh, skunk, and the occasional fresh breeze blowing by. The thick shrubbery and towering trees all along the road, along with the lack of the safety of day, made both of them on edge.

"Well, when this all started, that's what Alan and Josh decided, so I thought it was only fair to go along with the plan after their deaths. Of course, we were all really set on going there. My family owns a motel down there, and it's really secure—well, more secure than the motor inn or the RV. It just gives Emma and I hope, ya know?"

There was a beat of silence.

"That's somethin' you need now-a-days... So I'm guessin' Alan is the husband and Josh is your boy?" Kenny looked over at her with studying eyes. He had just noticed the age spots dotting her nose and cheeks, along with laugh lines and dark circles.

"Were..." She kicked a small rock into the bushes.

"Hey, what'd that poor rock ever do to you?" Kenny jested, elbowed her softly in the ribs.

"Nothing, but I need something to take my anger out on. Wouldn't you rather it be that rock than your stomach?" she replied mockingly.

"Hate to break it you, but I don't think anybody would enjoy being kicked in the stomach..." Kenny trailed off as he looked down at the map, asking Melissa to hold the flashlight for him to see... "We're almost there. Just gotta take that turn up there and it should be right up the road."

"Thank God," the woman sighed in relief, "I don't know how much more walking I could have taken."

"Yeah. We're gettin' too old for this shit," Kenny grumbled with a shake of his head.

Melissa stopped to pop her back, then felt the pain dissipate a little when a sharp pop sounded in her spine. "I feel ya. Literally. I feel twice my age."

"You and me both, woman," he quickly agreed, then realized what she had said. "Wait, that's pretty damn mean! I'm only forty-three."

"I would've guessed late fifties." She smirked and let out a small chuckle. "No, I'm just kidding... How do you think everybody's doing at the RV?"

Kenny shrugged his shoulders and continued walking. "I mean, they got Lee there with 'em, so everybody should be fine."

Melissa raised an eyebrow and looked up at the man. "You seem to have a lot of confidence in him."

"Well shit, he's saved my ass so many times I can't count. How could I not trust him?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "One thing I've learned while being around people for thirty-six years is to never trust them. Always have that little seed of doubt in the back of your mind so you'll be ready for anything they try to pull. Ask yourself a lot of 'what-ifs'."

"Are you saying you don't trust the man?" Kenny urged the topic, interested in anything besides the rotting bodies scattered around them.

"I don't trust anybody," she held up a hand when he opened his mouth to say something, "no, not even you. As far as I know, you could be ready to blow my brains out with that gun in your hand at any moment."

He hummed. "Smart woman... Hey, I think that's it. See those lights?"

Melissa followed his line of sight and saw a flurry of dim street lights and lit up signs. "What the shit? Why is the electricity still on?...Oh my—that place doesn't even look touched."

As they grew closer to the town, however, they noticed that the fence surrounding the small town was covered in razor wire. The land around it was inaccessible by a forty-inch handmade tangle foot.

"How is the fucking _fuck _did they manage _that_!?" Melissa shrieked angrily. "Can't somebody give us a fucking break around here!?"

"Well, looks like we have our answer..."

The woman looked at him incredulously. "Are you fucking SERIOUS!? YOU AREN'T THE SLIGHTEST BIT ANGRY ABOUT THIS?"

"We haven't had any good luck so far, so I just figured some shit would hit the fan here, too." He sighed and slouched his shoulders. "Maybe we need to look around, see if there is any way we can get in. Cause I don't know about you, but I'm not leavin' this place empty-handed."

* * *

**A/N: **Hey there. Yes, it's been pretty long since I've updated, but school has kept me so busy I haven't had time to write. Sorry. Stuff happens.

Anyways, how was this chapter? Did it give you feels like it did me? I was listening to sad music while I wrote this, and I did it in two sittings, so not bad.

I imagine some of Melissa and Lilly's future convos to go something like this:

_Mel_: Hey, knock knock.

_Lilly_: Who the fuck is there?

_Mel_: Not Larry because he's fucking dead! Heuheuheu!?

/insert angry Lilly face here/

Anyways, I am straying so far from the canon plot line I can't even see it anymore but I love it because I can now control the characters' fates because everything has changed and events leading up to their deaths never happened. I now control everything.

**Note:** This wasn't how I originally planned this out to be, but my fingers were like "no ur gonna do it this way" so now I have to go back and edit my plot outline. So I should do that.


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